Northwest Wild Country Radio Station

I’m a li’l rummy after 2 1/2 fitful hours of sleep last night, but even with a smorgasbord of college football on the boob tube in front of me, I’ve been having a hard time staying anchored today.

Joel blog mug Just like last night, as I stared at the glowing red “12:30” on my alarm clock, and then the glowing red “2:00” before finally saying “Ah, the hell with it,” and climbing out of bed to start the day.

The last 72 hours have been – to borrow from Charles Dickens – the best of times and the worst of times for West Coast fishermen.

The state of Washington is on the threshold of one of the most significant management changes in the history of the Department of Fish & Wildlife.

The state of California is on the verge of fishing Armageddon.

And a friend is out of the woods.

The best …: It took a couple of weeks after the November general election for the professional fate of WDFW director Jeff Koenings to come to light. The fact of the matter, though, is that Koenings’ 10-year WDFW career has been walking the Green Mile since a month before Christine Gregoire was re-elected governor of Washington.

Sport fishing politicos had been delivering some heat to the governor’s office in the weeks immediately preceding the election, focused, in part, on the apparent lack of follow-through on some of Gregroire’s 2004 campaign promises. While the rest of the country focused on the Obama-McCain-Palin-Biden circus, quiet confabs in Olympia revealed a growing willingness to make “The Big Change” at DFW.

Gregoire herself was matter-of-fact about the state of affairs in the lesiglature and DFW when she appeared live on Northwest Wild Country the Saturday before the election: “Time is of the essence,” Gregoire said in response to questions about Evergreen State fisheries management. “We’ve gotta change the way we operate our fisheries. We need to be urgent about it, and we need to push as hard as we can.”

And push she did.

As I write this, the unofficial/official spin is that Jeff Koenings’ resignation/reassignment/retirement will be officially announced as early as Monday, and that the search process for his replacement will begin immediately. The two most likely interim candidates – one of whom is a proven, hands-on anadramous-fish policy maker – are both welcome improvements over the aloof Koenings.

“Koenings has had 10 years to do something, and he’s shown us absolutely nothing,” says one trusted sport advocate. “Change has been long, long overdue.”

The worst …: You might not expect danger to come in the form of a California red-legged frog, but, I’m here to tell you – “you” being EVERYBODY who fishes for hatchery fish in ANY state – that dangerous, dangerous precedent is being set in California this week, in the name of the little amphibian pictured at left.

On Thursday, the California Department of Fish & Game agreed to a temporary injunction that’ll halt the stocking of all non-native trout species into any lake, river or stream that holds any of 25 threatened species of native fish or frogs. The temporary agreement is expected to be approved in Sacramento County Superior Court on Monday, immediately stopping trout stocking in 81 bodies of water, with another 112 fisheries standing on-deck.

The agreement is the offspring of a 2006 lawsuit filed on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity and the Pacific Rivers Council, litigation that attacks the Golden State’s century-old hatchery system (which pumps millions upon millions of rainbows, kokanee, landlocked Chinook and catfish into fisheries throughout the state). CBD/Pacific Rivers contend that proper Environmental Impact Reviews were never performed before DFG began stocking thousands of fisheries throughout the state, and that the introduction of non-native species like rainbow trout have negatively affected the survival of Mountain red-legged tree frogs, California golden trout, Owens tui chub, Santa Ana sucker and various other fish and frogs.

“If you think this will stop at trout stocked in native-bearing streams, you’re misguided,” says Steve Carson, reporter for the Chico Enterprise-Record. “This is just the start. As I understand it, this will influence every system where these species historically existed. In five years, I won’t be surprised if EVERY fishery stocked with trout will be required to pass an EIR.”

DFG is spending tens of millions of dollars on a comprehensive EIR, which will be done by early 2010, at which time an exhaustive “no-stocking” list will be compiled.

The money being burned on an EIR covering California’s 3,000-plus trout-bearing rivers lakes and streams is a small drop in the bucket for a state who’s trout fishery accounts for 8.27 million anglers days a year, and pumps lifeblood into communities throughout the East Sierra and northern California during the seven-month season.

Oregon and Washington anglers, beware: don't confuse me with Chicken Little, but this nasty bit of litigation establishes a precedent that’ll be far too easy for Pacific Northwest environmental groups to mimic.

Friend on the mend …: I’m not too proud to admit that news of Trey Carskadon’s heart attack last week knocked me off my pins. Trey – who many of you know as the longtime host of “America’s Outdoor Journal” and president of the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association – was admitted into a hospital near his home in Tualatin last Saturday after a minor heart attack, and then suffered another (larger) episode while under medical care.

To say that Trey is in important member of the Pacific Northwest Sportfishing scene is to say that the Pope is slightly Catholic: he’s one of the lynchpins of our regional industry.

He’s also a damn good friend.

I, like many, many others in this extended hook-and-line family, was devastated until I heard that Trey was resting comfortably at home, and was expected to make a full recovery.

I see that Trey made a post on Ifish today, expressing his gratitude for the support and encouragement he’s received in the past week.

It does my heart good to know that HIS heart is doing good, too.

All for now. Over and out.
-JS